BCF's "20 Books Everyone Should Read" 2010

[frankie]

Frankie, I honestly feel this book is more than just a book.

 

Like a sort of a Bible for being a better person? It's been long since I've read anything that has really inspired me to be a better person, I'm definitely due for improvement.

[Rhienne]

1. 'Venice' by Jan Morris

2. 'The Asian Saga' by James Clavell

3. 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' by Mitch Albom

4. 'The Wheel of Time series' by Robert Jordan (& Brandon Sanderson)

5. 'Ivanhoe' by Sir Walter Scott

[Coffin Nail]

Colour Purple-Alice Walker

 

Stupid White Men--Michael Moore

 

The Cold Granite series--Stuart MacBride

 

1984--George Orwell

 

Filth--Irvine Welsh

[Ooshie]

Weaveworld - Clive Barker

 

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguru

 

Neuromancer - William Gibson

 

The Great Crash of 1929 - J K Galbraith

 

Ratking - Michael Dibdin

[Chrissy]

2. 'The Asian Saga' by James Clavell

I love this series of books and do an annula re read of them.

Colour Purple-Alice Walker

1984--George Orwell

Two great choices, for very different reasons.

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguru

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Ishiguro is the master of nuance and undercurrent. His 'Never Let Me Go' is another stunning piece of writing. 'Neuromancer' has got to be one of my all time favourite reads, a great choice.

[Mac]

I choose:

 

Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman

The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber

 

But saying this, there are approximately 9,473,202 books that I feel people ought to read - I guess everyone has this issue, though!

[Peacefield]

I choose:

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

 

Yes!!! Ditto, sir .

[nursenblack]

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (my fav)

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Crime and Punishment - Fyoder Dostoyevsky

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

[Eck]

First time poster:)

1. Watershipdown by Richard Adams, the book that made me love books as a youngster.

2. The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar, makes me smile and laugh out loud.

3.The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks, what a twist!

4.Requiem for a dream by Hubert Selby, not a pretty book but it made a lasting impression.

5.And the Ass saw the Angel by Nick Cave, not an easy book to read but the imagery is incredible.

 

(Not in any order.)

[Coffin Nail]

First time poster:)

1. Watershipdown by Richard Adams, the book that made me love books as a youngster.

2. The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar, makes me smile and laugh out loud.

3.The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks, what a twist!

4.Requiem for a dream by Hubert Selby, not a pretty book but it made a lasting impression.

5.And the Ass saw the Angel by Nick Cave, not an easy book to read but the imagery is incredible.

 

(Not in any order.)

 

 

Is that the musician Nick Cave?

If it is I had no idea he'd turned to writing novels.

[Eck]

Is that the musician Nick Cave?

If it is I had no idea he'd turned to writing novels.

Yes the very same! A very talented guy imho, not only a great songwriter/lyricist but an author,actor and screenwriter too! The Ass saw the angel was his first book.

[Coffin Nail]

Yes the very same! A very talented guy imho, not only a great songwriter/lyricist but an author,actor and screenwriter too! The Ass saw the angel was his first book.

 

 

Wow. Very good to know. My TBR list just gets longer and longer.

[nicholbb]

The five would depend on the situation, is this general advice or is it like the Time Machine (film version) where he goes back to the Eloi with three books...

 

Romeo and Juliet

Just because it's a timeless story, well written and it puts Shakespeare in the list. I was tempted to put in the complete works but that would be cheating I think.

 

Catch 22

People seem to love this or just not get it. It's a funny book that mirrors the stupid situations people get themselves into because they don't question the rules.

 

The Davinci Code

No I'm not saying this is a great read from a style or well written point of view. However it definitely took the world by storm and it is a good story.

 

Complete works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Yes this is the complete works and so a cheat But it's also a book that reflects the period of its writing and help define the romantics and influenced the Gothic writings. As well as epic poems like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel and Kubla Khan (didn't like the last one) he had funny satirical poems too To a critic and The Devils Thoughts

 

Stephen Kings On Writing

Because I found it interesting and use its hints and tips for writing my reports and emails in work (no not my forum posts I'm afraid)

[willoyd]

Some fascinating nominations. Pardon me please if I'm being presumptuous, but is anybody actually going to list the twenty, or does that need doing (I'll do it if nobody else is of a mind).

[frenkas]

If you want some serious reading there is my list:

 

The Art of War

by Sun Tzu

Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph

by T.E. Lawrence

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

by J.R.R. Tolkien

Candide: Or Optimism

by Voltaire

Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

 

[Admin Edit: List to commercial site removed, please do not repost.]

Edited April 28, 2010 by Michelle

[vinay87]

@ Frenkas: You listed Sun Tzu's Art of War. You win 10000 points for awesomeness.

Have you read Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings? Or Niccolo Machiavelli's "Notes On The Art of War"? If not, you surely must. They're brilliant. And Kautilya's Arthashastra.

[Nienna]

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

2. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

3. Moondust by Andrew Smith

4. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

5. Hamlet by Shakespeare

 

Tried to get a good variation on genres in there!

[FlewtheCuckoosNest]

One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest- Ken Kesey (1962)

Chief Bromden, the half-Indian narrator of One Flew Over the Cuckoo�s Nest, has been a patient in an Oregon psychiatric hospital for ten years. His paranoia is evident from the first lines of the book, and he suffers from hallucinations and delusions.

 

The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business.

 

War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy (1899)

War and peace opens in the Russian city of St. Petersburg in 1805, as Napoleon�s conquest of western Europe is just beginning to stir fears in Russia. Many of the novel�s characters are introduced at a society hostess�s party, among them Pierre Bezukhov, the socially awkward but likeable illegitimate son of a rich count, and Andrew Bolkonski, the intelligent and ambitious son of a retired military commander.

 

The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger (1951)

The Catcher in the Rye is set around the 1950s and is narrated by a young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden is not specific about his location while he�s telling the story, but he makes it clear that he is undergoing treatment in a mental hospital or sanatorium.

 

To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee (1960)

Scout Finch lives with her brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, in the sleepy Alabama town of Maycomb. Maycomb is suffering through the Great Depression, but Atticus is a prominent lawyer and the Finch family is reasonably well off in comparison to the rest of society. One summer, Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who has come to live in their neighborhood for the summer, and the trio acts out stories together.

As you might be able to tell, I love books that center around Symbolism and problems that most people have even today. My Personal Favorite Novels is One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. The other four are novels, I have picked up and read since I was 7 years old, and I loved every single one of them. I also can not put down "Moby Dick" even though it is an extremely LONG novel, it is still something I can not put down.

 

Plus check out all 5 of these classic Novels (Especially One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, No I'm not Bias!) and enjoy your time with them, you will not be sorry.

[Kidsmum]

1) Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte

2) The Little Friend Donna Tartt

3) The Secret History Donna Tartt

4) Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett

5) To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee

[poppyshake]

It's so difficult to whittle it down to five, but after much contemplation .. and in no order.

 

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bront�

 

I can't believe I haven't got a Dickens or an Austen in there .. I'll probably regret it tomorrow.

[Sheeta]

I'm French so it won't be the same, in my opinion. It's without order, because I can't say which is my favourite.

 

Harry Potter series - J. K. Rowling (it changes a life when you're young... and I was 7 so it did for me)

Battle Royale - Koushun Takami (not as stupid as it seems! This book is huge and with a lot of details, with scary suspense and the most scary concept I've ever read. Maybe not a "Must Read once in your life", but a great experience, in my opinion)

 

The Portrait of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (I loved it, but maybe the end amazed me so much that I can't forget it )

Germinal - Emile Zola (hey, I must help my country I put it because it's a part of our history, and interesting to understand the suffering of the poor families of the end of the XIXth century. Not funny but powerful)

 

Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie (can't get tired of it! The movie is amazing too, which is rare )

 

 

I had once an extract from To Kill a Mockingbird in my English class, but I haven't read it at all. I should think of it, since I see that you take this one frequently!

[fwi]

My first post on this forum is indeed a challenging one. My top 5 (in no particular order) that everyone should read would be:

 

The Handmaid's Tale, the fabulous Ms Atwood

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

Middlesex, Jeffery Eugenides

Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

[mtjm]

1. The Poet - Michael Connelly

2. Relentless - Dean Koontz

3. The Pawn - Steven James

4. The Associate - John Gresham

5. Arguing with Idiots - Glenn Beck

[CornflowerBlue]

1. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

2. The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker

3. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

4. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

5. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

 

 

It hurt me not to put Angela Carter in there.

[Guest mcflash271]

5. Wheel of Time Series- A very thought provoking series, imo. Robert Jordan at first isn't very orginal, but later begins to drift away from his very Tolkien-like series to creating a whole new universe.

 

4. The Stand- A truly amazing and geniusly written book, by Stephen King. Shows a post-apocalyptic era in the US after a disease killes roughly 99% of the population. Shows the struggle with the people left alive. It also does a great job of showing a true battle between good and evil. If you haven't read The Stand yet, I sincerely urge you to.

 

3.IT- Ahhh, Stephen King at his finest. Doesn't get much better than this, folks. This is, imo, his best work. IT(like a lot of King's work) does a great job of having characters you can relate to. Iwon't even give a description, just please check it out. It's beautiful.

 

2. Lord of the Rings series(including The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and the Children of Hurin)- This was a very tough call. LotR is so unbelievably good and readable. But, I just had to choose another as my first.

 

1. Harry Potter series- I know, cliche. While many of you may scorn me for this, HP wins. I know, there are better books out there, but this is just simply the most readable, imo. It drags you into the storyline, at times you honestly feel like you're in Hogwarts! I have my fondest book memories in HP, and find it to be the best. You can easily relate to the characters, and it definitely never bores you.